In the electrical power industry, long distance distribution control lines are connected to breaker coils, which may be commanded to open or close the power line for a variety of reasons. For example, a power surge or other mishap may trip a coil, opening a line, or a breaker may be opened so that a line may be serviced. Breakers may also be opened or closed so that power transmission may be routed in one way or another to satisfy a particular geographic power demand and/or so that power may be transmitted in accordance with demand in the most efficient way possible. Additionally, in many fields in which transmission of heavy power loads is requisite, particular lines may be routinely opened or closed.
Traditionally, manual control switches have been used to operate circuit breakers which in turn may energize or de energize power lines and/or electrical equipment. For safety reasons, strict rules universal to the industry have been followed with respect to manual operation of such switches. Specifically, when a manual control switch controlling a breaker is opened, an orange tag with the operator's initials printed thereon is attached to the manual switch, and that particular operator alone may close the switch to allow the circuit breaker to re energize the line. This paper tag system has been very effective, as manual and local control of electrical power systems has, up until now, been the norm.
However, a trend currently exists in the electrical power industry toward central control of entire power systems, with many of the formally local, regional control functions being automated and controlled remotely from distant, central locations. For example, automatic sensing assemblies which may sense instantaneous power distributions may transmit information to a central location, where a decision may be made to re-route certain distribution pathways so as to meet a particular demand or create more efficient transmission or distribution. The decisions and actions taken with respect to routing at a central location may be made by personnel, or, increasingly, a power system central computer may control many of these operations. In the power industry, such central control by computer is commonly termed SUPERVISORY CONTROL AND DATA ACQUISITION, or SCADA. A particular SCADA system may be equipped to receive signals from remote locations containing information regarding the status of damaged or recently repaired lines, of power demands, or of current routes of distribution, may make decisions regarding a desirable status of a particular line, and may transmit signals that may close or open a particular switch to allow a particular breaker to close, or to prevent its closure.
Therefore, a need exists in the industry for a system which allows remote application of visual tagging to local manual control switches or to local control switches which have become automated, for example, under the control of system such as SCADA.